0:00:02 > 0:00:05This is the story of London in the 17th century,
0:00:05 > 0:00:07one of the most dramatic periods in Britain's history,
0:00:07 > 0:00:12illuminated through two remarkable surveys.
0:00:12 > 0:00:18The first, a labour of love, was produced by a London chronicler.
0:00:18 > 0:00:19He created a detailed account,
0:00:19 > 0:00:23recording not just London's buildings and businesses,
0:00:23 > 0:00:24but its character.
0:00:26 > 0:00:30The second, written over 100 years later, took the original work
0:00:30 > 0:00:32and updated it.
0:00:32 > 0:00:35The changes documented in these surveys reveal
0:00:35 > 0:00:40the origins of the phenomenal city London was to become.
0:00:40 > 0:00:45The first survey was the work of John Stow, a city merchant
0:00:45 > 0:00:47and chronicler, whose work was published
0:00:47 > 0:00:49in the very late 16th century.
0:00:52 > 0:00:58Stow walked every street, explored all of the great buildings, creating
0:00:58 > 0:01:03a detailed account of a medieval city on the brink of change.
0:01:03 > 0:01:07Stow's London, still mostly contained within its Roman wall,
0:01:07 > 0:01:11was home to just 200,000 people.
0:01:11 > 0:01:13The second survey,
0:01:13 > 0:01:17an updating of Stow, was published in 1720 by John Strype,
0:01:17 > 0:01:19a clergyman and London historian.
0:01:19 > 0:01:24Between Stow and Strype, London had suffered a calamitous century -
0:01:24 > 0:01:29Sectarianism, Civil War, the execution of the King, plague
0:01:29 > 0:01:31and the Great Fire.
0:01:31 > 0:01:34London should have been finished, and yet...
0:01:35 > 0:01:39The city that Stow had personally recorded street by street
0:01:39 > 0:01:43had grown far beyond the capacity of one man to document on foot.
0:01:45 > 0:01:49Despite a century of turmoil, London grew from a small medieval city
0:01:49 > 0:01:54into a vast, sprawling, wealthy metropolis.
0:01:54 > 0:01:57Indeed, one of the greatest trading cities in the world.
0:01:59 > 0:02:02By walking in the footsteps of these great chroniclers
0:02:02 > 0:02:06and comparing their surveys, I'm going to find out how London
0:02:06 > 0:02:10transformed during this remarkable century.
0:02:19 > 0:02:24If you had to find a catalyst for the astonishing evolution of London,
0:02:24 > 0:02:26where else would you find it but here,
0:02:26 > 0:02:31on the shores of one of the most famous rivers in the world?
0:02:31 > 0:02:34Stow and Strype's vastly different descriptions
0:02:34 > 0:02:38of the same stretch of river showed just how large a part it played
0:02:38 > 0:02:40in London's transformation.
0:02:40 > 0:02:45The Thames is, of course, integral to the story of London.
0:02:45 > 0:02:48Stow and Strype, when they described the Thames,
0:02:48 > 0:02:53offer clues to why London survived and thrived.
0:02:54 > 0:02:57Stow, on his journey through London,
0:02:57 > 0:03:00described the Thames in a very particular way.
0:03:01 > 0:03:05"This river openeth indifferently upon France and Flanders,
0:03:05 > 0:03:06"our mightiest neighbours.
0:03:06 > 0:03:09"And the city standeth thereon in such convenient
0:03:09 > 0:03:13"distance from the sea, sufficiently removed from the fear
0:03:13 > 0:03:16"of any sudden dangers that may be offered by them."
0:03:16 > 0:03:21Stow's description of the Thames reflects the concerns of his age.
0:03:21 > 0:03:24For centuries, England has been involved in European wars,
0:03:24 > 0:03:28so for Stow, the Thames was largely defensive.
0:03:28 > 0:03:30It offered splendid open vistas,
0:03:30 > 0:03:33so Londoners could see enemies approaching.
0:03:35 > 0:03:39For Strype, the Thames meant something very different.
0:03:39 > 0:03:43Moreover, its great trade may be guessed at by the shipping
0:03:43 > 0:03:45lying at anchor in the River Thames.
0:03:45 > 0:03:49The masts resemble a forest, besides those constantly going out
0:03:49 > 0:03:52or coming from foreign parts of the known world.
0:03:56 > 0:04:00Strype didn't see the Thames as a barrier to invasion.
0:04:00 > 0:04:03He saw it as the lifeblood of the city,
0:04:03 > 0:04:07a port that welcomed goods and people from all over the world.
0:04:09 > 0:04:13And it was this change into a thriving port that lay at the heart
0:04:13 > 0:04:17of London's transformation during the 17th century.
0:04:17 > 0:04:20In Stow's time, the extent of London's trade was largely
0:04:20 > 0:04:24limited to exporting cloth and wool to Europe.
0:04:24 > 0:04:27That's not to say that English ships didn't venture further afield.
0:04:27 > 0:04:31Many travelled as far away as the Caribbean.
0:04:31 > 0:04:34But these long-haul adventurers weren't primarily
0:04:34 > 0:04:36interested in trade.
0:04:37 > 0:04:40There's the reconstruction of the Golden Hind,
0:04:40 > 0:04:43the ship in which Francis Drake sailed around the world.
0:04:43 > 0:04:47But Drake was more than just an adventurer.
0:04:47 > 0:04:50Queen Elizabeth had given him official permission to attack
0:04:50 > 0:04:54and pillage enemy ships along the route.
0:04:54 > 0:04:57Drake liked to call himself a privateer.
0:04:57 > 0:05:00The Spaniards preferred to call him a pirate.
0:05:03 > 0:05:07Typical of the privateers, Drake preyed upon Spanish vessels trading
0:05:07 > 0:05:12in the West Indies, commandeering or stealing their treasure.
0:05:12 > 0:05:15It was an incredibly lucrative enterprise.
0:05:19 > 0:05:21When the voyage was over,
0:05:21 > 0:05:24the booty was shared amongst all involved in the adventure.
0:05:24 > 0:05:26Including, of course, the Crown.
0:05:30 > 0:05:33And the booty was immense.
0:05:33 > 0:05:36It included 20 tonnes of silver,
0:05:36 > 0:05:40five crates of gold and a box of pearls.
0:05:40 > 0:05:45The crew alone got £6 million in today's money.
0:05:50 > 0:05:54But the English privateers saw an opportunity to get richer still.
0:05:54 > 0:05:57If they were willing to gamble their new fortunes,
0:05:57 > 0:05:59there was real money to be made.
0:05:59 > 0:06:04This came not by stealing from traders, but by trading themselves.
0:06:07 > 0:06:12They pooled their money to invest in new companies that were
0:06:12 > 0:06:14operating along new trade routes.
0:06:14 > 0:06:19The profits seemed good, but the risks also were tremendous.
0:06:19 > 0:06:21The world was volatile, trade uncertain.
0:06:21 > 0:06:25Even King James I didn't want to risk his money.
0:06:25 > 0:06:28But the merchants thought it worth the gamble.
0:06:30 > 0:06:34One of the first companies created was the East India Company.
0:06:34 > 0:06:37Its maiden voyage was organised by
0:06:37 > 0:06:39an ambitious merchant called Baining.
0:06:39 > 0:06:45In 1601, Baining's one-time pirate ship joined a fleet of three,
0:06:45 > 0:06:48setting off to Sumatra,
0:06:48 > 0:06:51forging the first English trade route to the Far East.
0:06:52 > 0:06:57The venture was a success. Silver paid for Indian spices,
0:06:57 > 0:07:02indigo from Sutra, nutmeg from the Spice Islands.
0:07:02 > 0:07:04Even English cloth found markets beyond Europe.
0:07:06 > 0:07:08But as the money rolled in,
0:07:08 > 0:07:12it became clear that the old pirate ships just weren't fit for purpose.
0:07:14 > 0:07:18Fast, well armed, small
0:07:18 > 0:07:22and manoeuvrable fighting ships like the Golden Hind were
0:07:22 > 0:07:26perfect for pillaging enemy merchant ships on the high seas.
0:07:26 > 0:07:30But ships like this were really too small to carry
0:07:30 > 0:07:34the quantity of booty the merchants needed to make them rich.
0:07:34 > 0:07:41What the merchants needed were much larger ships, and quickly.
0:07:45 > 0:07:50Flush with cash, the new elite merchants commissioned new ships.
0:07:50 > 0:07:54The 17th-century equivalent of giant container carriers.
0:07:54 > 0:07:58Cargo vessels that could carry enormous quantities of goods.
0:07:59 > 0:08:01And this is where they built them.
0:08:01 > 0:08:05East of the city, near the estuary, near the sea.
0:08:05 > 0:08:07And the shipyards created here
0:08:07 > 0:08:10helped support England for centuries to come.
0:08:10 > 0:08:15They also pushed the boundaries of London further and further east.
0:08:18 > 0:08:21Goods were still delivered to the heart of the city,
0:08:21 > 0:08:24but the new shipyards would transform the East End.
0:08:25 > 0:08:28This master shipwrights house in Deptford was
0:08:28 > 0:08:30built for one of the shipyards.
0:08:30 > 0:08:35Dr John McAleer is a curator at the National Maritime Museum
0:08:35 > 0:08:38and an expert on the East India Company.
0:08:38 > 0:08:41So, the company starts building its ships in Deptford
0:08:41 > 0:08:44and then it spreads its activities down the river bank?
0:08:44 > 0:08:46Yes, that's right, within ten years of establishing a shipyard
0:08:46 > 0:08:49at Deptford, it's moved across the river too
0:08:49 > 0:08:50and expanded into Blackwall.
0:08:50 > 0:08:53It's building ships at Blackwall, and building bigger ships.
0:08:53 > 0:08:57The scale of the company's activity is growing, and obviously it needs
0:08:57 > 0:09:00bigger ships to sustain that trade, that commercial enterprise.
0:09:00 > 0:09:03When the first trading ships returned from the Far East,
0:09:03 > 0:09:08it became clear just how lucrative this new enterprise could be.
0:09:08 > 0:09:10The main point about that fleet is that it actually got back.
0:09:10 > 0:09:14It had proven that it could leave London, get to the Far East Indies
0:09:14 > 0:09:16and the other side of the world
0:09:16 > 0:09:18and return with a very valuable commodity -
0:09:18 > 0:09:20mainly pepper and other spices.
0:09:20 > 0:09:24And at that time, pepper was very valuable, like black gold.
0:09:24 > 0:09:27£1 million in weight of pepper would take something like
0:09:27 > 0:09:313000 camels, we think, to carry that amount of pepper
0:09:31 > 0:09:32from Asia back to Europe,
0:09:32 > 0:09:36so long-distance trade done on maritime routes using ships,
0:09:36 > 0:09:40are absolutely vital to making these commodities available to more people.
0:09:40 > 0:09:43So what was the effect of all of this?
0:09:43 > 0:09:45The East India Company, once they realised that it had been done
0:09:45 > 0:09:49and that it was successful, they realised that they needed to invest,
0:09:49 > 0:09:52pumping money into shipbuilding technologies.
0:09:52 > 0:09:55The East India Company is having a major impact,
0:09:55 > 0:09:58not just on what people are buying or eating or drinking
0:09:58 > 0:10:00by virtue of the goods they are bringing back -
0:10:00 > 0:10:02they're having a major impact on the fabric of London.
0:10:02 > 0:10:05They sort of knit together the different communities that
0:10:05 > 0:10:08make up the outlying regions of London.
0:10:09 > 0:10:12The East India Company's success inspired James I to grant
0:10:12 > 0:10:16licences to a host of other trading companies.
0:10:18 > 0:10:21And new trade kick-started new building.
0:10:24 > 0:10:28In Stow's survey, he mourns the loss of the open fields to the east.
0:10:33 > 0:10:34"But this common field,
0:10:34 > 0:10:37"so encroached upon by building of filthy cottages,
0:10:37 > 0:10:39"that in some places it scarce remaineth
0:10:39 > 0:10:42"a sufficient highway for the meeting of carriages.
0:10:42 > 0:10:45"And much less is there any fair, pleasant or wholesome way
0:10:45 > 0:10:49"for people to walk on foot, which is no small blemish
0:10:49 > 0:10:50"to so famous a city."
0:10:55 > 0:10:59But not all the lands around the city were succumbing to new housing.
0:11:00 > 0:11:03Large swathes were being swallowed up
0:11:03 > 0:11:05by a revolutionary form of agriculture.
0:11:07 > 0:11:10For a medieval city surrounded by countryside,
0:11:10 > 0:11:14it seems remarkable that London had struggled to feed itself.
0:11:16 > 0:11:19It seems hard to believe today, but the farmers who worked
0:11:19 > 0:11:23the countryside around London lacked the skills to turn
0:11:23 > 0:11:26vegetable production into a profitable business.
0:11:26 > 0:11:32Amazingly, it was cheaper to import vegetables from the Netherlands.
0:11:32 > 0:11:37But even as Stow's survey was being published, things were changing.
0:11:37 > 0:11:42Dutch Protestants fleeing persecution found
0:11:42 > 0:11:43a safe haven in London.
0:11:43 > 0:11:47They brought with them the secret that allowed Dutch farmers
0:11:47 > 0:11:49to produce plentiful, cheap vegetables.
0:11:49 > 0:11:54The same principle is used today on this rooftop in Crouch End,
0:11:54 > 0:11:57allowing this relatively small area
0:11:57 > 0:12:00to produce surprisingly large yields.
0:12:01 > 0:12:05The key was the very special use of an ingredient that
0:12:05 > 0:12:08could not have been more plentiful.
0:12:08 > 0:12:12In fact, you could say London was full of it - manure.
0:12:15 > 0:12:17But that introduced hotbeds -
0:12:17 > 0:12:21a thick layer of manure was put down,
0:12:21 > 0:12:25then covered with soil, into which the fruit and vegetables
0:12:25 > 0:12:26were planted.
0:12:26 > 0:12:30Now, the manure not only nourished the plants,
0:12:30 > 0:12:32but fermented as it did so.
0:12:32 > 0:12:34It released waves of heat
0:12:34 > 0:12:38so that the plants grew at double their former speed.
0:12:38 > 0:12:40Incredible.
0:12:40 > 0:12:44From now on, three acres of land could sustain a business
0:12:44 > 0:12:49and the trader of market gardening was born.
0:12:50 > 0:12:53In 1605, The Gardeners' Company of London
0:12:53 > 0:12:55was given its Royal Charter.
0:12:55 > 0:12:59It granted market gardeners permission to grow vegetables
0:12:59 > 0:13:02in the open fields closer to the city.
0:13:05 > 0:13:09For the first time, growing fruit and vegetables
0:13:09 > 0:13:13became a seriously profitable business.
0:13:13 > 0:13:16Many of the new gardens sprung up
0:13:16 > 0:13:19around London's southern suburb - Southwark.
0:13:22 > 0:13:25On the bank of the River Thames, there is now a continual building
0:13:25 > 0:13:29from the Bridge straight towards the south.
0:13:29 > 0:13:32A continual street called Long Southwark,
0:13:32 > 0:13:35builded on both sides with diverse lanes and alleys.
0:13:38 > 0:13:43The community that Stow describes had become synonymous with
0:13:43 > 0:13:47a very different kind of market, trading not in vegetables,
0:13:47 > 0:13:49but in forbidden fruits.
0:13:51 > 0:13:53This area, the South Bank,
0:13:53 > 0:13:57has always played a very individual role in the history of London.
0:13:57 > 0:14:00From the 12th century to the mid-16th century,
0:14:00 > 0:14:04it was a location of legal stews - that's legal brothels.
0:14:04 > 0:14:08And even after the South Bank came under the control of the city,
0:14:08 > 0:14:11it remained a place of relative freedom.
0:14:11 > 0:14:15Indeed, it became the Las Vegas of Tudor London -
0:14:15 > 0:14:18the location of gambling dens of the theatre
0:14:18 > 0:14:21and of that stalwart of the entertainment industry -
0:14:21 > 0:14:22prostitution.
0:14:26 > 0:14:30This part of Southwark that had contained the legal brothels,
0:14:30 > 0:14:33was owned by the Bishop of Winchester.
0:14:33 > 0:14:36This wall is all that's left of this once vast palace,
0:14:36 > 0:14:38part of The Great Hall.
0:14:42 > 0:14:45Traditionally, the girls working here became known
0:14:45 > 0:14:46as Winchester Geese.
0:14:51 > 0:14:55Travellers approaching the city from the south would gather here
0:14:55 > 0:15:00in Southwark to enjoy those pleasures with Londoners
0:15:00 > 0:15:04largely suppressed across the Thames.
0:15:04 > 0:15:09Stow records the ancient rules that govern the profession.
0:15:09 > 0:15:13For example, not just any woman could join.
0:15:13 > 0:15:16Nuns and wives were excluded.
0:15:17 > 0:15:21And they were protected from exploitation by brothel owners.
0:15:21 > 0:15:28They couldn't charge the Geese more than 14 pence a week for their room.
0:15:28 > 0:15:32And there were rules that protected the clients, too.
0:15:32 > 0:15:36Once a man had paid his money, the woman was his for the night.
0:15:39 > 0:15:44But as London expanded, prostitution started to follow the trade
0:15:44 > 0:15:46and cash was flowing into the East End.
0:15:51 > 0:15:54The East India Company made its mark.
0:15:54 > 0:15:59Between 1600 and 1650 the increase in trade with the Far East,
0:15:59 > 0:16:03the Middle East, and India created an irresistible demand for workers,
0:16:03 > 0:16:06and that revolutionised this area.
0:16:06 > 0:16:12In 1617, workers at the East India Company demanded extra money
0:16:12 > 0:16:16to cover the time it took to travel the large distance
0:16:16 > 0:16:18from the city to the wharfs.
0:16:20 > 0:16:22The solution was obvious.
0:16:22 > 0:16:26Lodgings started to go up next to the new wharfs -
0:16:26 > 0:16:29Wapping, Ratcliffe, Shadwell,
0:16:29 > 0:16:33Limehouse and Poplar all grew rapidly.
0:16:34 > 0:16:40By 1664, these five areas contained nearly 8,000 households
0:16:40 > 0:16:45and incredibly, over half the population of East London.
0:16:45 > 0:16:49One prostitute took particular advantage
0:16:49 > 0:16:52of this ever-growing client base.
0:16:52 > 0:16:55Here, just off the Ratcliffe Highway,
0:16:55 > 0:17:02an early resident forged a living in this thriving new dockland suburb.
0:17:02 > 0:17:07Damaris Page saw an opportunity to make some serious money.
0:17:07 > 0:17:13She purchased a tavern, or in fact a brothel, called The Three Tuns.
0:17:15 > 0:17:20Damaris provided more than just a service to lusty dockworkers.
0:17:20 > 0:17:26She had a very clever business on the side and it made her a fortune.
0:17:27 > 0:17:30When the government needed to recruit new sailors,
0:17:30 > 0:17:34Damaris Page opened the doors of The Three Tuns,
0:17:34 > 0:17:38allowing the press gangs to catch their prey with their trousers down.
0:17:38 > 0:17:43Damaris became not only very wealthy, but of course, notorious.
0:17:43 > 0:17:46Known as a wandering whore,
0:17:46 > 0:17:50she was lampooned by the popular satirist John Garfield.
0:17:58 > 0:18:02While the new shipyards gave birth to swathes of humble housing
0:18:02 > 0:18:06in East London, to the west the Royal course influence was
0:18:06 > 0:18:10to take development down a distinctly grander route.
0:18:10 > 0:18:12In Stow's time,
0:18:12 > 0:18:16the road that linked the city to the court at Westminster was the Strand.
0:18:16 > 0:18:19He describes the road, as you leave the city walls.
0:18:19 > 0:18:23"Some small distance without Temple Barr in the High Street
0:18:23 > 0:18:26"from a pair of stocks there standing,
0:18:26 > 0:18:30"stretcheth one large middle row or troupe of small tenements"
0:18:32 > 0:18:36Stow charts the presence of just a few aristocratic buildings
0:18:36 > 0:18:39on the south of the Strand.
0:18:39 > 0:18:45But the land to the north of here was still very much open country.
0:18:45 > 0:18:50In fact, the old Convent Garden off Westminster Abbey didn't even
0:18:50 > 0:18:53merit a mention in Stow's survey.
0:18:53 > 0:18:57It was until 30 years after Stow's survey that anything would change,
0:18:57 > 0:18:58but change it did.
0:18:58 > 0:19:03In 1631, the Earl of Bedford saw an opportunity.
0:19:03 > 0:19:06He paid the King for a licence allowing him
0:19:06 > 0:19:09to build a harmonious little town north of the Strand,
0:19:09 > 0:19:13fit for the habitations of gentlemen.
0:19:13 > 0:19:18And he chose a pioneering classical architect, Inigo Jones,
0:19:18 > 0:19:20to bring his vision not life.
0:19:20 > 0:19:22And Jones didn't disappoint.
0:19:30 > 0:19:36Jones designed this magnificent arcaded piazza with, at its focus,
0:19:36 > 0:19:42this mighty church, looking rather like a Roman temple.
0:19:42 > 0:19:47This was London's first uniform classical square
0:19:47 > 0:19:52and an inspiration on town planning for centuries to come.
0:19:56 > 0:20:02Julia Merritt is a leading expert on 17th-century West London.
0:20:02 > 0:20:05The creation of the piazza, of Covent Garden for the Earl -
0:20:05 > 0:20:08a lot of speculation that he wanted to make money,
0:20:08 > 0:20:13but why do you think such a pioneering, urban plan would work in London?
0:20:13 > 0:20:17I suppose one of the things that Bedford had identified
0:20:17 > 0:20:20was a real transformation that was taking place in the capital.
0:20:20 > 0:20:24Increasing numbers of the gentry and aristocracy wanted to spend
0:20:24 > 0:20:28part of the year in London to be able to socialise and increasingly,
0:20:28 > 0:20:31rather than just the man of the family coming from
0:20:31 > 0:20:34the countryside into the capital, whole families were coming up,
0:20:34 > 0:20:37so he knew he was going to provide the accommodation in response
0:20:37 > 0:20:38to the needs of those individuals.
0:20:38 > 0:20:41And this is a good location, halfway between the city,
0:20:41 > 0:20:45money-making financial power and Westminster,
0:20:45 > 0:20:48which is Parliament, but also good for shopping.
0:20:48 > 0:20:52Oh, it's very good for shopping and one of the other things that Bedford would have been aware of
0:20:52 > 0:20:55is that just a stone's throw away in The Strand
0:20:55 > 0:20:58was something called the New Exchange
0:20:58 > 0:21:03and it's basically a shopping mall which is particularly attuned to
0:21:03 > 0:21:06the needs of these new kind of aristocratic consumers.
0:21:06 > 0:21:10Full of different kinds of luxury goods, but it's not just about being
0:21:10 > 0:21:15full of luxury goods, it's about the fact that it's the place to go shopping, it's a social experience.
0:21:15 > 0:21:17It's a shopping mall, isn't it?
0:21:17 > 0:21:19I've never thought about it before, but it is, it's a pioneer.
0:21:19 > 0:21:23And the Earl's speculation worked, it was a success.
0:21:23 > 0:21:26It's immensely popular, it's a hit with the gentry and aristocracy.
0:21:26 > 0:21:29It seems to be a social success and the sort of housing people want.
0:21:33 > 0:21:38The success of the Covent Garden piazza inspired others to build.
0:21:38 > 0:21:41The expansion of London to the west was beginning.
0:21:47 > 0:21:51And as London's aristocratic population grew,
0:21:51 > 0:21:55their refined palettes created a demand for exotic food,
0:21:55 > 0:21:59and London's market gardeners didn't disappoint.
0:21:59 > 0:22:05Helen Evans works for the New Covent Garden Market in south London.
0:22:05 > 0:22:09Well, we're familiar with the idea of adventure chefs using exotic
0:22:09 > 0:22:12and novel vegetables or fruits to liven their dishes,
0:22:12 > 0:22:16but that was also the case in the 17th, 18th century?
0:22:16 > 0:22:19Oh, very much. I mean, it was a sign of your wealth
0:22:19 > 0:22:23and your power to have something new and exotic on your table,
0:22:23 > 0:22:27or to have something that was out of season on your table
0:22:27 > 0:22:32because it showed that you had a hothouse or some other way of producing that,
0:22:32 > 0:22:37and that's still mirrored in London's restaurants today.
0:22:37 > 0:22:40People are always looking to new varieties
0:22:40 > 0:22:43and even if you take something like the carrot.
0:22:43 > 0:22:47What we know of today is a lovely orange carrot,
0:22:47 > 0:22:50but actually it started out like this.
0:22:50 > 0:22:51Good heavens!
0:22:51 > 0:22:52It was purple.
0:22:52 > 0:22:56Carrots aren't naturally orange?
0:22:56 > 0:22:58The original carrot would have been that colour,
0:22:58 > 0:23:01and it was the Dutch who started to develop it.
0:23:01 > 0:23:05I mean, this is actually a yellow carrot,
0:23:05 > 0:23:07but if you put them together, you end up with an orange carrot.
0:23:07 > 0:23:11- Of course you do. - And of course, the House of Orange.
0:23:11 > 0:23:14Good heavens, how fascinating.
0:23:14 > 0:23:18So it becomes emblematic, a national statement.
0:23:18 > 0:23:21So they gave us the long Dutch carrot
0:23:21 > 0:23:25which is the father of all our orange carrots today, and now,
0:23:25 > 0:23:29the wheel is turning back and people are displaying interest
0:23:29 > 0:23:30in novelty again.
0:23:30 > 0:23:35- What, not because it's natural but because it's novel?- Yeah.
0:23:35 > 0:23:38I'm floundering with the carrot not being orange,
0:23:38 > 0:23:41it's changed my world view!
0:23:41 > 0:23:44As Londoners developed a taste for the unusual,
0:23:44 > 0:23:46the market kept expanding.
0:23:46 > 0:23:52Certain areas of London became associated with specific vegetables.
0:23:52 > 0:23:55For example, Battersea was famed for its asparagus,
0:23:55 > 0:23:59known as sparrowgrass in the 17th and 18th century.
0:24:00 > 0:24:03Fulham was famed for its parsnips.
0:24:03 > 0:24:07And from Hackney came, what else, the turnip.
0:24:11 > 0:24:16London's enormous appetite fuelled the market gardens.
0:24:16 > 0:24:19The Company Of London Gardeners
0:24:19 > 0:24:22that didn't even exist in Stow's time,
0:24:22 > 0:24:26now controlled over 10,000 acres of market gardens surrounding London.
0:24:29 > 0:24:32The market gardens grew up close to The Thames allowing
0:24:32 > 0:24:35easy transportation, not just of fruit and vegetables,
0:24:35 > 0:24:39but for the fertiliser, human manure.
0:24:39 > 0:24:44Strype writes with relish about the new aptly-named wharf.
0:24:47 > 0:24:51"Water Lane cometh out of Fleet Street and runneth down
0:24:51 > 0:24:55"to The Thames where there is one of the city laystalls
0:24:55 > 0:24:57"for the soil of the streets
0:24:57 > 0:25:02"which is taken from thence by barges and dung boats
0:25:02 > 0:25:07"and made use of by gardeners and farmers for manuring their grounds."
0:25:07 > 0:25:11Dung Wharf gave the market gardeners easy access to
0:25:11 > 0:25:15tons of London's precious filth.
0:25:15 > 0:25:17It was an environmentalist's dream -
0:25:17 > 0:25:22feeding Londoners on food nourished with their own waste.
0:25:27 > 0:25:32By 1640 London's population was 20 times larger
0:25:32 > 0:25:34than any other English city.
0:25:37 > 0:25:41But London was about to face a new challenge.
0:25:41 > 0:25:46A revolution that would have horrified the loyal monarchist Stow.
0:25:48 > 0:25:53In 1642, the rift between Charles I and Parliament escalated.
0:25:53 > 0:25:57Following a botched attempt to arrest five members of Parliament
0:25:57 > 0:26:00Charles fled London.
0:26:01 > 0:26:03The Civil War broke out.
0:26:03 > 0:26:06Suspicious of the King's religious loyalty
0:26:06 > 0:26:08and exasperated by his endless taxes,
0:26:08 > 0:26:13it is no wonder that most Londoners were staunch Parliamentarians.
0:26:14 > 0:26:18They wasted no time in blocking streets with chains and barriers,
0:26:18 > 0:26:22building redoubts with guard houses at the main city entrances.
0:26:25 > 0:26:29In 1643, the building of one of the largest defensive fortifications
0:26:29 > 0:26:31in Europe was underway.
0:26:31 > 0:26:36Once again, Dutch ingenuity came to the fore.
0:26:36 > 0:26:41Soon, 20,000 people were surrounding London with ramparts
0:26:41 > 0:26:45and ditch fortifications to Dutch military design.
0:26:47 > 0:26:49I'm walking along Brick Lane.
0:26:49 > 0:26:52During the Civil War, this was on the edge of London.
0:26:52 > 0:26:54On my right was a city in Parliamentary power.
0:26:54 > 0:26:59On my left the open countryside, prowling parliamentary forces,
0:26:59 > 0:27:06and a vast fortification, the lost Wall of London
0:27:06 > 0:27:10and down here in what is now Henley Street was a mighty rampart,
0:27:10 > 0:27:14a little fort by itself, commanding the surrounding countryside.
0:27:14 > 0:27:18During the Civil War, life for most Londoners went on
0:27:18 > 0:27:22much as usual apart from, I suppose, more soldiers in the street.
0:27:22 > 0:27:27Indeed, for many it represented something of a windfall with
0:27:27 > 0:27:32tailors, ironworkers, cobblers making weapons and uniforms
0:27:32 > 0:27:34and lots of money from the new armies.
0:27:39 > 0:27:43And the Civil War would create an entirely new industry,
0:27:43 > 0:27:46changing the way Londoners viewed their world for ever.
0:27:49 > 0:27:55The Civil War gave an unexpected boost to an old technological development, the printing press.
0:27:57 > 0:28:01In the chaos of the Civil War the tight regulations on printing
0:28:01 > 0:28:06went by the wayside and a mighty battle of words ensued.
0:28:07 > 0:28:12When Charles left London in 1642 the censorship laws,
0:28:12 > 0:28:15which had existed since the time of Henry VIII, were not,
0:28:15 > 0:28:18at least for a while, rigidly enforced.
0:28:18 > 0:28:22Londoners were quick to exploit this new freedom.
0:28:23 > 0:28:27With a male literacy rate of 80 % in London,
0:28:27 > 0:28:29the printed word found a ready market.
0:28:31 > 0:28:34Work by Parliamentarians like John Milton
0:28:34 > 0:28:39attacking the Church and Crown was devoured by Londoners.
0:28:40 > 0:28:43Pamphlets printed in London were sold at street corners,
0:28:43 > 0:28:48in print shops, or carried to rural areas.
0:28:48 > 0:28:52Indeed, the sale of pamphlets was becoming a lucrative business.
0:28:52 > 0:28:54For the first time in England, printing was becoming
0:28:54 > 0:28:57a means of mass communication.
0:29:00 > 0:29:02Its effect was profound,
0:29:02 > 0:29:06enabling the spread of radical ideas to disparate groups
0:29:06 > 0:29:11and justifying the most extreme of actions.
0:29:13 > 0:29:17Oliver Cromwell and his supporters won the upper hand.
0:29:17 > 0:29:22They took control of Parliament and charged Charles I with high treason.
0:29:24 > 0:29:30In January 1649, Charles was publicly beheaded in Whitehall
0:29:30 > 0:29:31in front of a crowd of thousands.
0:29:36 > 0:29:38Monarchy was abolished and a Republic declared.
0:29:43 > 0:29:46Cromwell took over, casting a puritanical shadow over
0:29:46 > 0:29:51the city that would change the way Londoners lived for the next decade.
0:29:52 > 0:29:56Fines were imposed for strolling on a Sunday,
0:29:56 > 0:29:59Christmas celebrations cancelled,
0:29:59 > 0:30:01and to cap it all, he started closing taverns.
0:30:06 > 0:30:11Stow's London was fast disappearing, but unabashed,
0:30:11 > 0:30:13the literate sophisticated Londoner
0:30:13 > 0:30:16was ready to take the closures in their stride.
0:30:18 > 0:30:22Alcohol was soon replaced by a new drug of choice.
0:30:25 > 0:30:31In 1651 a wealthy merchant in the Levant Company called Daniel Edwards
0:30:31 > 0:30:33left Smyrna and came back to London,
0:30:33 > 0:30:36but he brought with him an addiction.
0:30:36 > 0:30:41He asked his Greek employee Pasqua Rosee
0:30:41 > 0:30:44to come back to London with him
0:30:44 > 0:30:47because Edwards needed Pasqua to make him
0:30:47 > 0:30:52every morning a lovely strong cup of coffee.
0:30:54 > 0:30:59Edwards' coffee servant was the envy of his wealthy merchant friends.
0:30:59 > 0:31:02Soon Pasqua set up a shop selling coffee to the public.
0:31:04 > 0:31:08They opened the first coffee house here in 1652.
0:31:10 > 0:31:13Tucked away in St Michael's Alley, near the Royal Exchange,
0:31:13 > 0:31:17it was perfectly located to attract not only Edwards' friends,
0:31:17 > 0:31:19but also bankers, merchants, booksellers,
0:31:19 > 0:31:21all who worked in the neighbourhood.
0:31:30 > 0:31:34Coffee houses were not just places for trading business news.
0:31:34 > 0:31:39They became the perfect venue for sharing something else... Gossip.
0:31:40 > 0:31:43Fuelling this trade of gossip and news
0:31:43 > 0:31:49was the first investigative journalist, Roger Morrice.
0:31:49 > 0:31:52Until just a few years ago he was completely unknown,
0:31:52 > 0:31:55his work having been mis-categorised.
0:31:57 > 0:32:00This book is the complete collection of Morrice's work,
0:32:00 > 0:32:03originally published as weekly news manuscripts.
0:32:05 > 0:32:08Morrice was paid to write them for a select group of Londoners.
0:32:08 > 0:32:11Dr Mark Goldie at Cambridge University
0:32:11 > 0:32:15was the first man to recognise their true significance.
0:32:15 > 0:32:19Why has the manuscript not been fully understood until now?
0:32:19 > 0:32:21There are two reasons for that.
0:32:21 > 0:32:24The first is I don't think people realise just how many
0:32:24 > 0:32:26kinds of history this document can tell us about.
0:32:26 > 0:32:28This was regarded as a specialist religious work
0:32:28 > 0:32:32but in fact it's a fantastic source for the social,
0:32:32 > 0:32:35the cultural history of London at the time.
0:32:35 > 0:32:38But the second reason is that some of it is written in a shorthand code.
0:32:38 > 0:32:42Right. I see, it is a shorthand isn't it?
0:32:44 > 0:32:49Mark and his team spent two years firstly deciphering the code
0:32:49 > 0:32:52and then transcribing over 1,000 of Morrice's manuscripts.
0:32:55 > 0:32:59They offer unique insight into Londoners' business
0:32:59 > 0:33:01including some of its dirty laundry.
0:33:03 > 0:33:06We have got here an extract from January 1681.
0:33:06 > 0:33:09It is the Ambassador of the King of Morocco who has come to visit
0:33:09 > 0:33:12the King of England and he is deeply shocked by what he sees in London
0:33:12 > 0:33:18and also apparently he claims he has been offered a whore into his bed.
0:33:18 > 0:33:21As a rather puritanical, a Muslim, I suppose he finds it offensive.
0:33:21 > 0:33:22Absolutely.
0:33:22 > 0:33:26He exclaims with shock and shame, "My religion forbids whores,
0:33:26 > 0:33:27"does not yours?"
0:33:27 > 0:33:29- Yes.- Really shocked by what he sees.
0:33:29 > 0:33:33"So many ladies come open faced and with bare breasts."
0:33:33 > 0:33:36Who would have read it? Do we know the individuals?
0:33:36 > 0:33:38Who commissioned him? Who paid him?
0:33:38 > 0:33:41Well, Morrice is working for a very small group
0:33:41 > 0:33:44of leading opposition politicians.
0:33:44 > 0:33:49He is their gofer, their factotum, their discreet man about town.
0:33:49 > 0:33:51He is their eyes and ears in London
0:33:51 > 0:33:54providing them with information and he would have been in deep trouble
0:33:54 > 0:33:56if this had been found by the authorities.
0:33:56 > 0:34:00Was Morrice ever rumbled? Does this appear in state papers?
0:34:00 > 0:34:03- Do people know about his existence? - No, that is the extraordinary thing.
0:34:03 > 0:34:07If it wasn't for this manuscript in this library, you would hardly
0:34:07 > 0:34:10think that Morrice ever existed.
0:34:10 > 0:34:12Morrice was obsessed with his new career,
0:34:12 > 0:34:15writing tirelessly about what he had seen and heard in London
0:34:15 > 0:34:16during the week.
0:34:16 > 0:34:19There is a lot of information from the coffee houses,
0:34:19 > 0:34:22which are the newly fashionable places.
0:34:22 > 0:34:25It is on the streets, it is on the boats on the River Thames.
0:34:25 > 0:34:29One thing that did puzzle me, he's getting it from people
0:34:29 > 0:34:33- he calls chairmen.- Yes. - I wondered, what on earth is that?
0:34:33 > 0:34:35It dawned on me these are sedan chair carriers.
0:34:35 > 0:34:38They're the taxi drivers of 17th-century London
0:34:38 > 0:34:41where of course you get your news and gossip from.
0:34:41 > 0:34:44- Indeed.- This is a tremendous resource for all of that.
0:34:44 > 0:34:48Morrice had started a trend that would flourish,
0:34:48 > 0:34:52and soon in the expanding capital, newspapers were keeping more
0:34:52 > 0:34:56Londoners politically informed than town criers ever could.
0:34:58 > 0:35:03In 1660 after Cromwell's death Charles II was invited to
0:35:03 > 0:35:05take the throne.
0:35:05 > 0:35:09With a restored Monarch, a stronger Parliament, and a growing
0:35:09 > 0:35:13population, London was poised to become Europe's greatest city,
0:35:13 > 0:35:18but was about to be hit by two devastating blows.
0:35:30 > 0:35:32At the close of 1664,
0:35:32 > 0:35:36down a narrow street in the St Giles-in-the-fields area,
0:35:36 > 0:35:38people started to die.
0:35:40 > 0:35:42The great plague had arrived.
0:35:42 > 0:35:45The plague was not new to London.
0:35:45 > 0:35:50Stow had survived three epidemics. But the scale of this outbreak
0:35:50 > 0:35:51would be catastrophic.
0:35:51 > 0:35:571665 saw the disease start its inevitable procession
0:35:57 > 0:35:59through the crowded streets,
0:35:59 > 0:36:04the deadly bacteria killing victims within just days of exposure.
0:36:04 > 0:36:08By June, it had reached apocalyptic proportions.
0:36:08 > 0:36:12Plague orders were issued and red crosses were daubed on front doors
0:36:12 > 0:36:16making prisoners of Londoners in their own homes.
0:36:17 > 0:36:21London, for perhaps the first time in its history, fell silent.
0:36:23 > 0:36:27All that could be heard was a rumble of carts carrying away the dead.
0:36:28 > 0:36:34The shops and the markets were closed. Even the Thames was empty.
0:36:34 > 0:36:38Those who were not dead had fled or they had locked themselves
0:36:38 > 0:36:42in their homes in an attempt to keep out of harm's way.
0:36:42 > 0:36:46At street corners, massive bonfires blazed
0:36:46 > 0:36:49in an attempt to purify the air.
0:36:49 > 0:36:54The city was full of smoke and the sighs of the dying.
0:36:54 > 0:36:56London was on its knees.
0:37:00 > 0:37:05At its height in September, 8,000 Londoners died in just one week.
0:37:06 > 0:37:09The sheer numbers of bodies
0:37:09 > 0:37:11changed the very landscape of Stow's London.
0:37:11 > 0:37:15St Olave's is one of the few remaining London churches
0:37:15 > 0:37:18that John Stow would recognise today.
0:37:18 > 0:37:21But there is one feature that would puzzle him.
0:37:29 > 0:37:32He would wonder why we now have to go down these steps
0:37:32 > 0:37:34to enter the church.
0:37:34 > 0:37:40In his time, this was the level of the churchyard.
0:37:42 > 0:37:44In just five months,
0:37:44 > 0:37:50this graveyard was swollen with the bodies of 326 plague victims.
0:37:50 > 0:37:53This is what Peyps, who lived and worked nearby,
0:37:53 > 0:37:57and who knew the church well, wrote at the time.
0:37:57 > 0:38:02"It frighted me indeed to go through the church to see
0:38:02 > 0:38:07"so many graves lie so high upon the churchyard
0:38:07 > 0:38:11"where many people have been buried of the plague."
0:38:11 > 0:38:13The bodies are still here.
0:38:13 > 0:38:18This mound is a monument to the dead of the Great Plague.
0:38:31 > 0:38:34Just when it seemed things couldn't get any worse,
0:38:34 > 0:38:37disaster ravaged London again.
0:38:37 > 0:38:40This time, not pestilence but fire.
0:38:44 > 0:38:47Fires were not unusual in London.
0:38:47 > 0:38:50Most houses and trades had open hearths, from brewers
0:38:50 > 0:38:52and soap boilers to blacksmiths.
0:38:53 > 0:38:58So when a fire started on Sunday morning in September, 1666,
0:38:58 > 0:39:00in the King's baking house in Pudding Lane,
0:39:00 > 0:39:03no-one took much notice.
0:39:03 > 0:39:07The Lord Mayor, Thomas Bloodworth, remarks that when he first
0:39:07 > 0:39:12saw the fire he thought it small enough for a woman to piss it out.
0:39:13 > 0:39:17But as Strype later commented:
0:39:17 > 0:39:21"A easterly wind, which is the driest of all others, had blown
0:39:21 > 0:39:25"for several days together before and at that time, very strongly."
0:39:25 > 0:39:29The unusually hot summer had turned London into a tinderbox.
0:39:31 > 0:39:33So a fire that could have been put out with a chamber pot
0:39:33 > 0:39:36spread at an alarmingly rapid rate.
0:39:36 > 0:39:39For the second time in as many years, the diarist
0:39:39 > 0:39:44Samuel Pepys found himself reporting on a London tragedy.
0:39:45 > 0:39:47As he rushed along this street, Watling Street,
0:39:47 > 0:39:49he saw the chaos for himself.
0:39:49 > 0:39:51This is what he wrote.
0:39:51 > 0:39:54"Every creature coming laden with goods to save,
0:39:54 > 0:39:58"and here and there, sick people carried away in beds."
0:39:58 > 0:40:01People were saving themselves and their possessions,
0:40:01 > 0:40:02not fighting the fire.
0:40:04 > 0:40:07Startled Londoners were in disarray.
0:40:07 > 0:40:09Not knowing what to do,
0:40:09 > 0:40:13many headed for the fields of Islington, Finsbury and Highgate.
0:40:13 > 0:40:16What of the boats on the Thames?
0:40:16 > 0:40:20The wharves, which had done so much to boost London's economy,
0:40:20 > 0:40:26now spread the fire. Warehouses, here in front of me,
0:40:26 > 0:40:28were packed with combustible materials -
0:40:28 > 0:40:33sugar, tar, rope, oil.
0:40:33 > 0:40:36So the flames sped along the river front.
0:40:36 > 0:40:39DISTANT CROWD SCREAMS
0:40:43 > 0:40:45All across the city,
0:40:45 > 0:40:48London's newly-developed trading centres were being laid waste.
0:40:51 > 0:40:53As the fire surged through the city,
0:40:53 > 0:40:57the financial heart of England's growing empire fell victim.
0:40:57 > 0:41:00The Royal Exchange was engulfed in flames.
0:41:04 > 0:41:06Justin Champion is a professor of history
0:41:06 > 0:41:10at Royal Holloway University of London.
0:41:10 > 0:41:12We are standing at Aldgate, just east of the city of London,
0:41:12 > 0:41:16and the fire, of course, did not quite burn that part of the city.
0:41:16 > 0:41:18- It didn't reach this far, did it?- No, it didn't.
0:41:18 > 0:41:23But this area would have felt the impact, consequences of perhaps
0:41:23 > 0:41:26at some point 200,000 people fleeing the fire.
0:41:26 > 0:41:28So it's quite busy out there that the moment.
0:41:28 > 0:41:32In early September, 1666, it would have been packed.
0:41:32 > 0:41:36It must have been absolutely traumatic.
0:41:36 > 0:41:38Tell me how the fire affected trade in the city?
0:41:38 > 0:41:40It is absolutely catastrophic
0:41:40 > 0:41:44because it not only disrupts the sort of commerce and exchange,
0:41:44 > 0:41:48it destroys large amounts of very, very valuable goods.
0:41:48 > 0:41:50There are very substantial warehouses for cloth,
0:41:50 > 0:41:52and for all sorts of goods,
0:41:52 > 0:41:56and those are associated with big, trading, mercantile activity.
0:41:56 > 0:41:59So everything in one sense is destroyed
0:41:59 > 0:42:02because it's all there waiting to be traded.
0:42:02 > 0:42:04You mentioned the plague and the fire.
0:42:04 > 0:42:07How did the plague effect the economy of the city?
0:42:07 > 0:42:10We can think of the plague as really disrupting and stopping
0:42:10 > 0:42:13that mercantile activity and only once London is just about
0:42:13 > 0:42:16to start to recover, the fire hits it again.
0:42:16 > 0:42:19Suddenly, in the space of four days, it is wiped out.
0:42:19 > 0:42:22This is a city of commerce, suddenly destroyed.
0:42:32 > 0:42:36Pepys walked through the smoking streets, littered with debris,
0:42:36 > 0:42:39flanked with tottering and gutted buildings.
0:42:39 > 0:42:43Eventually he arrived here at St Paul's Cathedral.
0:42:43 > 0:42:46Five days earlier, this would've been one of the mightiest
0:42:46 > 0:42:49and most venerable churches in Christendom.
0:42:49 > 0:42:53No, it was nothing but a vast ruin.
0:42:53 > 0:42:54This is what he wrote at the time:
0:42:54 > 0:42:58"A miserable site, the roofs and choir fallen."
0:43:02 > 0:43:05The fire finally came to an end
0:43:05 > 0:43:09but with over 13,000 houses destroyed,
0:43:09 > 0:43:12much of the London Stow knew had gone.
0:43:12 > 0:43:15London should have been finished.
0:43:15 > 0:43:17Its population ravished by the plague
0:43:17 > 0:43:20and its buildings laid waste by the fire.
0:43:29 > 0:43:33As the city still smouldered, something remarkable happened.
0:43:33 > 0:43:37On the very day the fire finally died out,
0:43:37 > 0:43:41Charles II was told that people in the city were starting
0:43:41 > 0:43:44to rebuild houses on their old foundations.
0:43:47 > 0:43:52When rebuilding began in earnest, it started with the houses.
0:43:52 > 0:43:54Despite the King's grand plans,
0:43:54 > 0:43:59most people simply rebuilt their houses where they had stood before.
0:43:59 > 0:44:02Some streets were levelled and widened and all new buildings
0:44:02 > 0:44:08had to be faced with brick or stone, but to a remarkable degree,
0:44:08 > 0:44:12the new city and its general form looked much like the old.
0:44:14 > 0:44:17And the rebuilding of the city centre did not stop
0:44:17 > 0:44:20the spread of London's new suburbs.
0:44:22 > 0:44:26"Great numbers of edifices were erected in the suburbs,
0:44:26 > 0:44:28"where before were fields and void places,
0:44:28 > 0:44:31"especially in the east parts of the city."
0:44:35 > 0:44:38This is Princelet Street in Spitalfields.
0:44:38 > 0:44:41Of the new streets from Strype's time,
0:44:41 > 0:44:44pushing steadily north-east from the city.
0:44:45 > 0:44:49But it wasn't just the houses that interested Strype
0:44:49 > 0:44:51but the people who were building them.
0:44:56 > 0:45:03The area became home to French Protestants, Huguenots.
0:45:03 > 0:45:06And the skills they brought with them were a wonderful example
0:45:06 > 0:45:11of how London could benefit from its human imports.
0:45:11 > 0:45:17Susie Symes shares the Museum of immigration at 19 Princelet Street.
0:45:17 > 0:45:20You should go straight up, to the Georgian bit of the house.
0:45:20 > 0:45:23The Huguenots were mostly silk weavers
0:45:23 > 0:45:27and the skills they developed helped inspire the growth of
0:45:27 > 0:45:29a whole new area of London in the East.
0:45:30 > 0:45:35In 1687, there were an estimated 13,000 French Protestant
0:45:35 > 0:45:37refugees settled in London.
0:45:37 > 0:45:40The greater part of them were probably located
0:45:40 > 0:45:41here in Spitalfields.
0:45:41 > 0:45:44It's intriguing to consider what the Huguenots brought
0:45:44 > 0:45:46to London in the late 17th century.
0:45:46 > 0:45:49They clearly created very valuable trade, the silks, the silk industry.
0:45:49 > 0:45:51They brought all of that, didn't they?
0:45:51 > 0:45:53They brought a lot of skills in goldsmithing,
0:45:53 > 0:45:56silversmithing and making fine instruments.
0:45:56 > 0:45:59Because whilst Britain is really the crucible of the first
0:45:59 > 0:46:04industrial revolution, in France, there more craft skills.
0:46:04 > 0:46:07Bringing those, and being very entrepreneurial.
0:46:07 > 0:46:12- And this house, of course, one of the families were here.- Yes.
0:46:12 > 0:46:16Peter Abraham Ogier and his wife lived in this house
0:46:16 > 0:46:19with their children who'd have played out in the garden
0:46:19 > 0:46:24behind the house and being a newly arrived refugee, he builds his skill,
0:46:24 > 0:46:27he builds his workforce, he becomes master of the Weavers' Company.
0:46:27 > 0:46:29Obviously, very well off and comfortably off.
0:46:29 > 0:46:32The story of the Ogiers is really a success story.
0:46:32 > 0:46:35They flee persecution, learn the trade...
0:46:35 > 0:46:38And rise to the height of that trade. To master of the company.
0:46:38 > 0:46:40Yes, yes.
0:46:40 > 0:46:44The assimilation of talented foreigners started a trend
0:46:44 > 0:46:46that would benefit London for centuries to come.
0:46:46 > 0:46:49This room would have been the parlour.
0:46:49 > 0:46:52The window here, but of course this is no longer a window
0:46:52 > 0:46:56but a door into another world. A 19th-century world. But a continuation of the story.
0:46:56 > 0:47:00This is the Jewish immigration, isn't it? Of the mid-19th century.
0:47:00 > 0:47:03And equally dominant in Spitalfields in its day.
0:47:03 > 0:47:07And what was a garden on the back of the house becomes a synagogue.
0:47:07 > 0:47:10So we see how the physical changes of one house captures
0:47:10 > 0:47:16what's happening in the outside streets and in the outside society.
0:47:27 > 0:47:30The French immigrants transformed this newly developed area
0:47:30 > 0:47:35of London into the centre of England's increasingly wealthy
0:47:35 > 0:47:36silk industry.
0:47:36 > 0:47:40Strype, in his survey, highlighted the benefits their skills
0:47:40 > 0:47:42brought the nation as a whole.
0:47:42 > 0:47:45This is what he wrote:
0:47:45 > 0:47:50"A great advantage has accrued to the whole nation by the rich
0:47:50 > 0:47:54"manufacturers of weaving silks and stuffs and camlets,
0:47:54 > 0:47:58"which arts they brought along with them."
0:47:58 > 0:48:01As the East end developed its unique character,
0:48:01 > 0:48:04the West was evolving a personality of its own.
0:48:05 > 0:48:08Now, land just to the north of parliament was about to
0:48:08 > 0:48:11transform into a household name.
0:48:12 > 0:48:16London's wonderful West End was about to be born.
0:48:21 > 0:48:25Now recognised around the world, it seems hard to believe that
0:48:25 > 0:48:28when Stow wrote his survey, the West End as an area
0:48:28 > 0:48:30didn't even exist.
0:48:32 > 0:48:34London's West End was open countryside,
0:48:34 > 0:48:38home to deer and a hunting ground for the Tudors.
0:48:40 > 0:48:44In Stow's time the Haymarket didn't even have a name.
0:48:44 > 0:48:48It was described simply as "the way to Charing Cross."
0:48:48 > 0:48:52It remained unnamed for the next 50 years.
0:48:53 > 0:48:59But in 1662 Charles II granted his great companion, Henry Jermyn,
0:48:59 > 0:49:03the licence to build in St James's field.
0:49:03 > 0:49:06Jermyn's grand plans were the talk of the town.
0:49:07 > 0:49:09In resonance with Covent Garden,
0:49:09 > 0:49:13he was creating the next wave of urban development.
0:49:13 > 0:49:17The square was the centrepiece of a stunning development,
0:49:17 > 0:49:23a collaboration between Jermyn and Charles II, who was the owner of the land
0:49:23 > 0:49:28and perhaps Christopher Wren who eventually designed the church.
0:49:28 > 0:49:32The square was the first of the West End's great residential squares,
0:49:32 > 0:49:37vast in scale, majestic in conception.
0:49:37 > 0:49:41An amazing statement which I suppose in a way was conceived to be
0:49:41 > 0:49:46a forecourt to the King's palace, St James's Palace, just over there.
0:49:46 > 0:49:50Also, it formed a landmark in the development of London
0:49:50 > 0:49:53because Jermyn became known as the founder of the West End.
0:49:56 > 0:49:59His project became the catalyst for the development for some
0:49:59 > 0:50:02of London's most iconic landmarks.
0:50:05 > 0:50:09Haymarket started to develop into the place we recognise today
0:50:09 > 0:50:15and this vast area that Stow hardly bothered with is now described by Strype...
0:50:23 > 0:50:27The market for hay and straw here kept every Tuesday,
0:50:27 > 0:50:30Thursday and Saturday makes it to be of good account.
0:50:32 > 0:50:36This was the beginning of the playground of the wealthy.
0:50:36 > 0:50:39Luxurious houses and theatres gave Jermyn's West End
0:50:39 > 0:50:41a character that it carries to this day.
0:50:47 > 0:50:49The West End was inspirational.
0:50:49 > 0:50:51The spirit of enterprise rife.
0:50:52 > 0:50:55More businessmen began to speculate.
0:50:55 > 0:50:59They built houses even without guaranteed buyers -
0:50:59 > 0:51:04a risky undertaking but a lucrative one if the gamble paid off.
0:51:08 > 0:51:11Bordering on the newly created suburb of Bloomsbury
0:51:11 > 0:51:14the fields near Gray's Inn were ripe for development.
0:51:15 > 0:51:20Nicholas Barbon epitomised this new breed of entrepreneurial
0:51:20 > 0:51:25Londoners intent on making money and making it quickly.
0:51:25 > 0:51:27But as is the case today,
0:51:27 > 0:51:31new developments are not always popular as Barbon found out
0:51:31 > 0:51:35when he started to develop houses near Gray's Inn on Red Lion Fields.
0:51:38 > 0:51:42Hearing all his plans a large body of furious lawyers came here
0:51:42 > 0:51:47determined to save the green and pleasant field around their inn from redevelopment.
0:51:47 > 0:51:50Amazingly, the lawyers battled the builders.
0:51:50 > 0:51:53They threw bricks at them to stop them from carrying on with
0:51:53 > 0:51:56construction but ultimately it all came to nothing.
0:51:57 > 0:52:01The ruthless Barbon triumphed, constructtion continued
0:52:01 > 0:52:04and Red Lion Square was completed during the 1680s.
0:52:05 > 0:52:10These new houses, planned uniformly and with components
0:52:10 > 0:52:14assembled on site pioneered aspects of modern mass housing.
0:52:14 > 0:52:19It even came complete with another innovation, fire insurance.
0:52:19 > 0:52:22Inevitably, profiteering has its price.
0:52:22 > 0:52:25Barbon's buildings had grand interiors...
0:52:25 > 0:52:28but unfortunately nothing survives, externally.
0:52:35 > 0:52:37How wonderful to be in a Barbon room.
0:52:37 > 0:52:41These houses were built quickly and economically
0:52:41 > 0:52:46and certainly corners were cut, structurally, which of course
0:52:46 > 0:52:49explains why none of the elevations survive in the square.
0:52:49 > 0:52:52It all had to rebuilt quite quickly.
0:52:52 > 0:52:57He mass produced details and had the components assembled on site,
0:52:57 > 0:53:01which means many of his houses have very similar interiors.
0:53:03 > 0:53:07Having said that, look how wonderful the mass-produced details are!
0:53:07 > 0:53:11Of course the details had to be good or Barbon would not have been able
0:53:11 > 0:53:14to let the houses to a discerning public.
0:53:14 > 0:53:17So although they're mass produced,
0:53:17 > 0:53:21there's nothing cheap and nasty about them.
0:53:22 > 0:53:25These terraces were not built to last
0:53:25 > 0:53:29but were just what the new gentry wanted.
0:53:29 > 0:53:32Ideally suiting the capital's upwardly mobile new rich,
0:53:32 > 0:53:34they were snapped up.
0:53:34 > 0:53:36Barbon's risks had more than paid off.
0:53:36 > 0:53:42But Barbon wasn't the only speculator making money out of property.
0:53:42 > 0:53:47Out East, Damaris Page, the great bawd of the seamen,
0:53:47 > 0:53:48was starting to think big.
0:53:48 > 0:53:51With the money she'd made from her brothels
0:53:51 > 0:53:53and recruitment service,
0:53:53 > 0:53:56Damaris had moved up in the world.
0:53:56 > 0:53:59She invested much of her fortune in the construction of houses,
0:53:59 > 0:54:03many in the salubrious area round the Tower.
0:54:03 > 0:54:06By the time Damaris died in 1699,
0:54:06 > 0:54:09she'd acquired both fame and fortune.
0:54:12 > 0:54:15The land east of the city that people like Damaris had developed
0:54:15 > 0:54:18was a far cry from the Elm tree-lined streets that Stow
0:54:18 > 0:54:21recorded over a century earlier.
0:54:21 > 0:54:23And the economic engine that had
0:54:23 > 0:54:27driven the transformation continued at pace.
0:54:27 > 0:54:31By the early 18th century, London was once again a centre of commerce,
0:54:31 > 0:54:33it had recovered after the Great Fire.
0:54:33 > 0:54:35Tell me how this recovery took place.
0:54:35 > 0:54:40Maritime trade is the dynamo the drives London, essentially,
0:54:40 > 0:54:42and, of course, you've got hundreds, thousands of people
0:54:42 > 0:54:45involved in building ships and supporting dockyards and the like.
0:54:45 > 0:54:48But you've also got then thousands of other people depending on
0:54:48 > 0:54:52ancillary trades - finished products made from these things
0:54:52 > 0:54:55brought in from Asia and The Levant and from other places.
0:54:55 > 0:54:57We're in the Master Shipwright's House in Deptford
0:54:57 > 0:55:00and, of course, ships were being built over there, next door,
0:55:00 > 0:55:02and over there across the Thames.
0:55:02 > 0:55:07The river itself, a big highway bringing the treasures of the world, goods going out.
0:55:07 > 0:55:10It would've been AMAZING, such activity, such wealth of water.
0:55:10 > 0:55:14Absolutely. And a constant innovation and development.
0:55:14 > 0:55:16It wasn't static, it was still expanding at a HUGE rate
0:55:16 > 0:55:20at the end of the 17th century and it keeps going right up to the end
0:55:20 > 0:55:23of the 18th century when you've got the biggest dockyards in the world.
0:55:23 > 0:55:27How did this transform London physically and socially?
0:55:27 > 0:55:31Initially, the East India Company as we know was founded in the city of London, very much within
0:55:31 > 0:55:34that sort of square mile as it were, but of course, by the end of the 17th century
0:55:34 > 0:55:37because it's grown so big, because it's got warehouses
0:55:37 > 0:55:40and all sorts of other establishments being developed,
0:55:40 > 0:55:44the East India Company linking places on the river like Deptford and Blackwell
0:55:44 > 0:55:46and in between this sort of ribbon-like development
0:55:46 > 0:55:51of small villages, hamlets coming together, filling in the blanks,
0:55:51 > 0:55:54as it were, filling in the gaps of London in the 17th century.
0:55:54 > 0:56:01By 1700, more than three quarters of England's commerce with the world passed through London.
0:56:01 > 0:56:04Strype gloried in this productivity.
0:56:04 > 0:56:11"At this city merchant strangers of all nations had keys and wharfs.
0:56:11 > 0:56:14"The Arabians sent gold.
0:56:14 > 0:56:18"The Sabians, spice and frankincense.
0:56:18 > 0:56:20"The Scythians, armour.
0:56:20 > 0:56:21"Babylon, oil.
0:56:21 > 0:56:23"India, purple garments.
0:56:24 > 0:56:26"Egypt, precious stones.
0:56:26 > 0:56:30"Norway and Russia, ambergris and sables.
0:56:30 > 0:56:32"And the Frenchmen...wine."
0:56:37 > 0:56:39After a century of turmoil,
0:56:39 > 0:56:42Londoners could be forgiven for finally looking to the future
0:56:42 > 0:56:44with a sense of optimism.
0:56:46 > 0:56:50Not all was rosy for London's world class moneymakers.
0:56:50 > 0:56:54They faced one final hurdle to long-term security and growth.
0:56:56 > 0:57:01And that hurdle came in the form of an old adversary, the King.
0:57:05 > 0:57:09In 1672 Charles II was desperate for money.
0:57:09 > 0:57:12It was necessary to finance a war with the Dutch,
0:57:12 > 0:57:15but since he was a constitutional Monarch,
0:57:15 > 0:57:17he depended on Parliament.
0:57:17 > 0:57:19He could not raise taxes at a stroke.
0:57:20 > 0:57:24Ever resourceful, Charles came up with a solution.
0:57:26 > 0:57:28Rather than repaying his debts,
0:57:28 > 0:57:33he declared a payment holiday lasting for a full year.
0:57:33 > 0:57:36Well, this was convenient for him, not for others.
0:57:36 > 0:57:38Many wealthy Londoners who'd lent him money
0:57:38 > 0:57:43hoping for a safe investment found themselves ruined.
0:57:45 > 0:57:47Investment was key to London's growth
0:57:47 > 0:57:51and if it was to continue with confidence, its economy
0:57:51 > 0:57:54had to be protected from the whims of the King.
0:57:56 > 0:58:02In 1694, Parliament hit upon a solution -
0:58:02 > 0:58:05it founded the Bank Of England.
0:58:05 > 0:58:08Now when wealthy citizens wanted to lend money to the King,
0:58:08 > 0:58:13they had their lands guaranteed by Parliament.
0:58:13 > 0:58:16This new system not only offered comfort to investors
0:58:16 > 0:58:22but also helped secure London at the heart of world finance.
0:58:32 > 0:58:35"But now we are to show the modern and present state of this city
0:58:35 > 0:58:38"which has grown vastly populous and improved.
0:58:38 > 0:58:42"For whereas anciently it was fields except houses thinly,
0:58:42 > 0:58:46"now all is built contiguously in length and breadth containing
0:58:46 > 0:58:51"a great compass and that with very noble and magnificent structures."
0:58:52 > 0:58:56The surveys of Stow and Strype are detailed written accounts
0:58:56 > 0:59:01of the capital, allowing us to understand just how London
0:59:01 > 0:59:05evolved during this defining era in British history.
0:59:07 > 0:59:12The 17th century was, for Londoners, one of dazzling change and growth.
0:59:17 > 0:59:21Through revolution, pestilence and fire, they struggled
0:59:21 > 0:59:23to survive. But indeed, they thrived,
0:59:23 > 0:59:26and London became the largest city in Europe
0:59:26 > 0:59:30and set the pace for the beginning of modern Britain.
0:59:49 > 0:59:53Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd